be with joy
by BirdG
Summary: I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool.


**A/N:** Written for hp_canon_fest's summer pick-a-prompt fest. Thanks to queenb23more and libbi for the beta! The italicized parts are from the poem "The Invitation" and the quote that inspired this fic was: The most important thing a father can do for his children is love their mother." - Rev. Theodore Hesburgh

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_It doesn't interest me how old you are._

"You are twenty-eight. I shall be fifty in the Spring," he explained. "I am old enough to be your father."

"Oh, no. Not at all." Her earrings - two Sickles dangling from both ears by a thin strand of metal - swayed as she shook her head. There was a hint of gentle humor in her voice as she explained, "Daddy was in his early sixties when I was born; he's almost ninety now. He and my Mum married when they were older. So, you see, he is much older than you."

Rolf smiled despite himself.

"Perhaps you meant that I am too young for you?"

"No. You are wise beyond your years." She had a labyrinthine mind, Luna. Even if he lived a hundred more years he would never fully understand all the curves of her thoughts. "But you are young and beautiful. You have the whole world at your feet..." his words trailed off as he remembered someone else who had given him a very similar speech.

"Your wife, Lysandra? She was older than you, yes?"

He sometimes wondered if she was a Legilimens for he felt as if those large, silvery eyes could see right through him. "Yes. She was fifteen years older than me."

Luna merely nodded, not pushing any further. She looked ahead, to the still waters and the moon high on the horizon. "I am young and if we do become lovers, I'll still have the world at my feet. The only difference is you'll be beside me."

_I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool_

What was intended to be a three-day expedition had turned into a week of camping in the woods without a glimpse of the ever-elusive Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Half their team had left days ago and Rolf suspected that in another day, only he and Luna would remain.

For her part, she seemed unconcerned. She had her back to him now, her legs tucked under her as she sat on the forest floor, her bright pink Muggle trainers peaking out from the hem of her practical green robes. Her wand was in her hair; Rolf had watched as she rolled her long blonde hair and then twisted her wand through it to create the knot she now wore. Every so often, she would catch sight of something and raise the Omnioculars to her eyes. Minutes would crawl past and she would lower them again; the only hint of her frustration was the downward slope of her shoulders.

"Ve're leaving."

Rolf looked up from the boiling pot of beans, rice, and fish to find Pavils and Jazeps standing in front of him. Both boys had finished their schooling and had begged their mother, who had been a friend of his at Durmstrang, to introduce them to Rolf in the hopes of coming on this trip. He was surprised they had lasted as long as they had.

"Good-bye," he said placidly. After exchanging confused glances, the pair left and Rolf caught a glimpse of the final member of their team - Melvin, an American who had written to them for many years with effusive praise for their "willingness to seek the truth" - looking at them with envy. When Melvin turned towards him, Rolf nodded that he was free to leave as well.

With a flick of his wand, he extinguished the flames under the pot of food before covering it with a lid. He went over to Luna, sitting down behind her, wrapping his arms around her as she leaned against him.

"This didn't go very well, did it?"

He said nothing, instead laying a soft kiss to her temple.

She glanced down at the Omnioculars in her hands. "I hope the others aren't too disappointed."

"They will be fine." He tilted his head towards her, his spectacles slipping down his long nose. "What about you, my dear?"

"I'm fine." He felt her shrug and when she turned her head to look up at him, he saw a glimmer of mischief in her eyes that belied her serene tone. "Though I do wonder how we'll pass the time until our Portkey leaves."

_for love_

"No."

Rolf's heart sank with this one word. Clutching the ring to his chest, he sat back on his heels. Everything had been leading to this moment. Or so he had thought.

He had made his peace with Lysandra's death and was ready to build a new life with the woman standing before him. Then Luna had told him that she was pregnant, that soon he would be a father. Rolf had needed no more encouragement than that. He had searched for the perfect ring (a delicate creation of silver, moonstone, and pearl) and waited for the perfect moment (when they returned to the lake where they had first kissed).

"Are you unhappy?"

"No," she said sweetly. Luna's fingers combed through his long hair, brushing past the scars on his ear, the same scars that were on his neck and back. "I am very happy with what we have now. I'm not ready to change that."

She held out her hands to help him to his feet.

_for a dream_

"It must all sound very silly," she told him, sadness in her eyes as she watched the boys play. Lorcan and Lysander were nine, on the brink of ten, and already excited about the prospect of leaving for school.

"Not at all."

When he was a child, just eight years old, he was attacked by a man suffering from lycanthropy. It had been a new moon that night; that was why he was still alive, that was why he was not a lycanthrope himself, just forever-scarred. In the weeks and years that followed, he would feel himself weighed down by the pain and terror his family had experienced through his attack. He would wonder at how one person could hold so many others in thrall with their very existence.

Something he would revisit after the death of his first wife.

When he was a young man, eighteen and fresh out of Durmstrang, he had decided things needed to change. He went to work fighting for the rights of all those afflicted by lycanthropy, even his former attacker. It was a vision very few understood.

Rolf took her hand in his, thumb brushing over the ring she wore, the ring he'd given her when they hadn't married because it - like his heart - was hers regardless. "You will go. You will go because it is your dream and you need to fulfill it. And in three months, you will return. Perhaps, with a Crumple-Horned Snorkack in tow."

Her face lit up with a smile and he kissed her.

"You will return," he whispered, holding her close. "And you will be there to celebrate the boys' birthday and many more after that."

Because you are not your mother, he thought, and you are not doomed to the same fate.

_for the adventure of being alive._

"Tomorrow is a very big day."

Luna rested her head against his shoulder, her eyes still watching the water. "Yes, moves often are."

He looked down at her with an arched brow. "You are making fun of me."

"Yes, I suppose I am." The smile she wore flickered and her expression became more thoughtful. "I do hope the boys like England."

"They will." He grinned as she twined a lock of his auburn hair around her finger; Luna had something on her mind. "We still have to fill out some of the forms for Hogwarts."

Most wizards and witches were married when they had children Hogwarts-age and the forms they had sent reflected that.

"They're quite impractical, yes. Neville says he's going to push the Board of Governors to change the forms for next year," Luna said, as if reading his thoughts. "I suppose this would all be much easier if we were married."

Rolf nodded and found that Luna was still looking at him, her gaze steady and interested. "My dear, are you asking?"

"Yes. I want very much for you to say 'yes,' but I'll understand if you don't."

Bringing her hand up to his mouth, he kissed it. "My answer has been 'yes' for a long time."

**Fin**


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